You are here

A visit with author Vivienne Schiffer

Join us on Saturday, May 19 at 2pm for an afternoon with author Vivienne Schiffer when she will discuss and sign her debut novel, Camp Nine.

About Camp NineOn February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the secretary of war to prescribe military zones “from which any or all persons may be excluded.” Eventually this order was applied to one-third of the land area in the United States, mostly in the West, clearing the way for the relocation of 120,000 people of Japanese descent.
The town of Rook and Camp Nine are fictionalized versions of Rohwer, Arkansas, and the Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County, one of two sites in Arkansas where 16,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated between 1942 and 1945. Memorabilia from the Rohwer camp has been collected by Vivienne Schiffer’s mother, Rosalie Gould, for an exhibit for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in September 2011. For more information, visit
encyclopediaofarkansas.net and butlercenter.org.

Praise for Vivienne Schiffer and Camp Nine"[F]inely wrought debut novel...Schiffer immerses readers in the thick bayou air and community tensions."
- Publishers Weekly
"A compelling, vivid account of a shameful episode that should not be forgotten."
- Booklist starred review

"Through the prisms of place, family, race, class, power, and privilege, Vivienne Schiffer skillfully constructs a necessarily complicated portrait of the era into a meaningful mosaic and satisfying story."
- author Grif Stockley
A book signing will follow the talk, and University of Arkansas Press will sell books. The event is free and open to the public.